30 March 2007

Johnny Walker , the manufacturers of premium whiskey, had promised a sum of 1 Million dollars to charity if any one could score 6 sixers in one over. Herschelle Gibbs did just that when he hit the hapless Dutch bowler , Dan Van Bunge for 6 sixes in a single over. It was a small ground and the team was an associate cricketing nation ,accepted , but the ball still had to be hit consistently. The massacre started of innocuously , but one could see , the look of gleam in Gibbs' eyes after the first 3 sixers. You could see that he was trying for the 6 sixers record. Gibbs became the first player in the history of the ODI's to perform this feat. Gary Sobers and Ravi Shastri had earlier performed this feat at county and domestic levels, but this was the first time in an International match.

Lasith Malinga almost won the match single handedly for Srilanka in their first Super 8 match against South Africa. Malinga started the act with South Africa needing 5 runs to win with 5 wickets in hand with 5.2 overs. The batsmen at the crease were no mucks with the bat. Shaun Pollock and Jacques Kallis were the batsmen at the crease , with Andrew Hall , Makaya Ntini , Robin Peterson , Charl Langeveldt to follow. What followed was an inspired spell of fast bowling. Great change of pace led to the wickets of Pollock and Hall , while a full delivery accounted for Kallis and a Hattrick. By crashing into Makhaya Ntini's stumps , Malinga had ripped through the lower middle order of South Africa and had created a world record. Watch the video in youtube, Amazing!!!

There are doubtless millions of people tuning into the World Cup cricket on television, and most of them will be wondering, as the cameras pan around the ground (mostly lingering on Sky's favourite image of a cleavage straining to remain inside a bikini) where all the spectators have gone, writes Martin Johnson in the Telegraph.

Giles Mole writes in the Telegraph that the England and Wales Cricket Board have approved Yorkshire's signing of South African batsman Jacques Rudolph under the Kolpak ruling but the ECB unanimously condemned this type of application. Jacques Rudolph had earlier renounced his intention to play for South Africa in January so as to sign a three-year contract at Headingley without counting as an overseas player.

26 March 2007

Lewis Hamilton's race at OZ might have been the perfect start to a F1 career , but it has been just one race into a long year. Nico Rosberg made a similar blistering start in Bahrain last year and that was perhaps the last we heard of him. Admitted , that Lewis is quick and has the skill needed, but a long season with 17 races , needs a consistent performer behind the wheels of the Woking based outfit.

A real show of talent , would be when he faces , wet weather conditions or when he has tyre or machinery problems. The maturity of a F1 driver is shown , when he nurses an ailing car to a podium or a points finish.Lewis Hamilton , might be the pick of the rookies , he might possibly turn out to be the best driver on the grid as well at the end of the season, but let the racing speak for itself. Lewis has been fast , sometimes , outpacing his more illustrious team mate , but whether he has the maturity to win races and win a drivers championship will be tested over 16 more gruelling races. Till then let the hype , about Lewis being the drivers Champion be put on hold.

23 March 2007

Kimi Raikkonen, the Finnish driver , completed his first race for the Scuderia as winner. He won it comfortably , finishing almost 7 and a half seconds in front of reigning double world Champion , Fernando Alonso.

All was however not well , as the Finnish driver confirmed that he had had problems in communicating with his race engineer due to a problem with the Radio.

By the end of the race ,Mclaren would have known that they needed to work on a lot of things , if they were to catch up with the Scuderia and wipe out the second a lap difference in the fastest lap times. Mclaren however wouldn't want to hear what Kimi Raikkonen had to say when the race ended.

"We knew that our rhythm in the race was very competitive: I did not have to go to the limit, but maybe if the radio had worked I would have gone faster."

"On one occasion - just about ten laps before the end the race - I almost fell asleep! I got distracted, my concentration levels dropped a bit and I locked the wheels and took Turn Three slightly too wide: even without radio I knew that they were saying: 'Kimi, wake up!'

Kimi Raikkonen, normally taciturn might have just started playing mind games with the reigning world champion. The reports from Kimi Raikkonen after the Australian Grand prix must surely demoralise the Woking based team. With only one race gone, it will be interesting to see if Kimi was just letting off a lot of hot air to demoralise his rivals or the F2007 is indeed a class apart.